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Rafe Hernandez
FBI agent Rafael Hernandez first appeared in Salem in October 2008. He arrived to relay information to Sami and her witness protection guard. However, once he arrived, he found that Sami had given sleeping pills to her guard. When Sami's guard awoke, the guard resigned from her post and left Rafe to guard Sami. Rafe and Sami butted heads in the beginning, but ultimately formed a friendly relationship. Rafe stayed fairly quiet about his personal life, but did mention that he spent a lot of time at the local convent when he was younger because he was a problem child. He also mentioned his mother, who taught him how to make tamales. Rafe was one of the few people who knew that Sami was pregnant while in witness protection. He also knew that E.J. was the father of Sami's baby, but went along with Sami's plan to hide Grace's paternity. After the stint in witness protection was over, Rafe wasn't ready to leave Sami and Grace behind. He tried to apply for a job with the Salem PD and wanted to build a future with Sami. While the Salem PD could not hire him, he decided to stay in Salem anyway to be with Sami and Grace. While in Salem, he also reconnected with his estranged sister, Arianna. Despite Arianna's protest against his relationship with Sami, Rafe moved forward with her. He asked if he could adopt Sami's baby, Grace, and Sami agreed. But, before the adoption could be legalized Grace died of bacterial meningitis. Rafe was crushed. In the weeks following Grace's death, Sami noticed that Rafe was more distant. She started asking questions when she found Rafe visiting the grave of Emily Hudson. Rafe told Sami that Emily was his fiancée, who had tragically died on their wedding day. But, Rafe would not elaborate on much more of the story. Sami began to investigate Rafe. But she didn't get very far. Emily's sister, Meredith, returned to Salem. In retaliation for her sister's death, Meredith kidnapped Rafe and held him captive in her parent's old house. She hit Rafe in the head with a brick and threw him into the river. Luckily, Carly Manning fished Rafe out of the river and nursed him back to health. Rafe returned to Salem and began to investigate Nicole Walker, who he believed switched babies with Sami. He snuck DNA samples from Sydney and Sami and had them analyzed. When he learned that they were a match, he told Sami what Nicole had done. Sami got her daughter back. Sami and Rafe's reunion with Sydney was short lived. A desperate Nicole kidnapped Sydney from the DiMera mansion and left Salem. While on the run, Anna DiMera caught up with Nicole and kidnapped Sydney from Nicole. Anna sent Sami ransom notes and instructed Sami not to involve the police. So, Sami kept the letters from Rafe and confided in E.J. When Rafe found out, he was upset and broke up with Sami. Rafe continued to investigate Sydney's kidnapping, as he was not convinced that Anna was working alone. Rafe suspected that E.J. was behind the kidnapping and tried to get Anna to confess. When she refused, he looked for clues elsewhere. Luckily, one night he happened on Nicole and E.J. having a suspicious conversation on the pier. Rafe set his sights on Nicole. Thanks to Victor, Rafe learned that the best way to get Nicole to trust him was to convince her that he was interested in her. So, Rafe met Nicole one night at the Cheatin' Heart and bought her a few martinis. He came onto her and the two eventually ended up back at her apartment. Nicole stopped things just short of sleeping together, but asked Rafe to stay the night anyway. Rafe agreed and when Nicole fell asleep, he searched her apartment for something to incriminate E.J. He found the recording of E.J. confessing to paying Anna to kidnap Sydney. He told Nicole that he would grant her immunity and protection if she authenticated the recording on the record. Nicole had no choice but to agree. Rafe rushed over to the DiMera mansion to stop Sami and E.J.'s wedding. When he played the recording for Sami, she broke up with E.J. and left with Rafe. The two spent the night together and Rafe proposed to Sami. She accepted. However, what Rafe didn't know was that Sami snuck out of his apartment in the middle of the night to go confront E.J. again. Instead of talking to him, she found him passed out and holding a gun. She shot him in the head and threw the gun into the river. The next morning, Bo questioned Sami about E.J.'s shooting. Rafe insisted that Sami was with him all night. Rafe genuinely believed that to be true until Sami confessed everything to him shortly afterwards. Despite his dedication to the law, Rafe quit the FBI and swore to protect Sami at all costs. He was even given the suggestion that they rush their marriage so that he wouldn’t have to testify against her in court should she be arrested. Before they could wed, E.J. discovered that Sami was the one who shot him. E.J. blackmailed her into giving him sole custody of Johnny and Sydney or else he would not only turn her over to the police, but Rafe and Will as well as they were accessories since they both knew she was the culprit. Sami was cornered and tearfully agreed to E.J.’s demands. E.J. gave her one more day with the children to say goodbye before he would take them away, as he quipped, forever. Sami was devastated, but Rafe kept encouraging her that they would do whatever it took to get the children back. He also encouraged her to get married that night so that everyone would have one last happy memory as a family before the unavoidable hard times to follow. Sami agreed. When E.J. found out that Sami was marrying Rafe, he became enraged, interrupted the festivities, and demanded Johnny and Sydney leave with him. Sami had no choice but to hand over the children to him, but vowed to get them back. Despite her heartbreak, Sami agreed to go on with the service. Rafe and Sami were officially married on November 24, 2010. After the wedding, Rafe remained focused on returning Johnny and Sydney to Sami. He joined the Salem Police Department and began to investigate E.J. Rafe hoped that he could dig up dirt on E.J. and have him sent to prison, thus giving Sami a chance to get the kids back. His investigation stalled when it was discovered that Johnny had cancer. Rafe stood by Sami and tried to support her as best he could, especially after the doctors had to remove one of Johnny’s eyes. A short time later, it was revealed that Johnny’s cancer had spread to his remaining eye, but, luckily, it was caught in time and his sight was spared. Johnny’s health crisis prompted E.J. to let Sami back into her children’s lives, but what nobody knew is that Rafe himself would become E.J.’s next weapon in his war against Sami. When Rafe was hospitalized after a car accident, Stefano and E.J. switched Rafe for a double that they had hired to impersonate Rafe. The imposter was a small-time criminal, Arnold Finegan. Arnold's job was to break up Sami and Rafe's marriage and make sure that Johnny and Sydney knew that E.J. was their dad. Arnold went so far as to sleep with another woman, so Sami would think that Rafe was cheating on her. Eventually, Sami decided to take a break from Rafe. Meanwhile, the real Rafe was being held prisoner in the DiMera basement so that he could feed information to the imposter. When Rafe refused to give any more information, Stefano injected Rafe with a memory erasing drug and sent him off to live in an institution. Slowly, Rafe regained his strength and escaped from the institution. He made his way back to Salem and eventually came face-to-face with Sami and Arnold. After a face off with Arnold, Sami realized who the real Rafe was and helped him tie up Arnold and lock him in the bathroom. Still having no memory, Rafe asked Sami who she was. Sami told Rafe about their life together. As she was talking, Rafe regained all of his memories. The two began plotting to get the DiMeras back. They moved Arnold to an abandoned warehouse where they kept him tied up and fed him very little, in an attempt to get him to implicate the DiMeras. Arnold refused. Because of his strange behavior in the past few months, the Salem P.D. put a tail on Rafe, which lead them to the warehouse. Bo and Hope followed up on the tip and found Arnold tied to a chair. When confronted with the news, Sami and Rafe told Bo and Hope the truth. The four of them decided to work together. They injected Arnold with truth serum and got him to confess to Fay Walker's murder. Thrilled that they finally had the proof that they needed, Bo and Hope stuck a deal with Arnold to testify against the DiMeras in return for witness protection. Just as they were about to get his official statement, Arnold was attacked and killed by fellow prisoners in the holding cell who mistook him for Rafe. Sami and Rafe did not get to see the DiMeras go to jail, but E.J. did sign over full custody of the kids to Sami. Rafe and Sami settled into a happy life with the kids and put their marriage back together. They were happy to attend the dedication of the new Horton Town Square together. Sami was thrilled to see Carrie, Austin, Marlena, and John show up at the dedication as well. But amidst all of the celebration, Rafe got a phone call from the FBI. Rafe was ordered to arrest John on embezzlement charges. Rafe immediately believed in John's innocence. Even after John was arrested, Rafe worked to investigate the case. When he learned that there may be a witness who could rebut some of the prosecution's case, Rafe tipped off Carrie- John's lawyer. When Roman found out what Rafe had done, Roman had no choice but to fire Rafe. Rafe immediately assumed that Austin told Roman what Rafe had done and Rafe took his anger out on Austin. Rafe punched Austin in the face the next time that Rafe saw Austin. To make matters worse, Sami agreed to let Austin stay with them for a few days until he found a new hotel room. Rafe and Austin butted heads at home. When Carrie found out that Rafe had lost his job helping her, she felt responsible. She convinced her firm to hire him as a private investigator and assign him to John's case. Carrie and Rafe immediately started working together. This made for uncomfortable situation for both couples as Carrie and Rafe believed in John's complete innocence, where Sami and Austin wondered if John's brain could still be under Stefano's control.